The Mitchell report is a witchhunt headed by one of the board of directors of the Red Sox to point fingers at who've taken steroids before they were deemed illegal. This article shows some of the inadequates of it. This was a great blog post though that helps sum up my feelings on it.

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Originally Posted by RAB

Damn the Mitchell report
Posted by: Joseph P. in STEROIDS!

After reading this article on ESPN.com, my feelings towards the Mitchell report have gotten worse, if that’s at all possible. I’ll excerpt some quotes of note:

From a coach (all of the sources here are unnamed, for obvious reasons):

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Originally Posted by coach

“They wanted us to speculate. And I wouldn’t do that. They wanted me to say who I thought was using steroids. And when I said, ‘I don’t know,’ they would say, ‘Well, you work most closely with these guys. You work on their bodies every day. You weren’t the least bit suspicious when you saw their bodies change?’

“This was the kind of stuff I was most afraid of, because they didn’t ask me about specific people with specific information that they had. They asked me to guess. I said my guess was no guess at all, because what would happen to me if I said a guy was using steroids who wasn’t? What if I guessed wrong? Then my name is out there, I get fired, and I’m easily replaceable.”

Why are they asking people to guess?

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Originally Posted by more

“They didn’t ask us those things because they didn’t have the level of sophistication about what we do,” said a National League strength coach. “They didn’t know the right questions to ask. At no point in my interview did anyone say to me, ‘What can we recommend to make sure this never happens again?’”

Uh, wasn’t the whole point of the investigation to figure out how to never let this happen again? Oh, my mistake. I forgot that it was a witch hunt to bring out the biggest names in baseball.

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Originally Posted by more

“I didn’t go in there with a lawyer because I didn’t have anything to hide,” the manager said. “They asked me if I’d ever seen anyone do steroids. I said no. They asked me how I thought the players’ bodies got so big, and I said the players were in the weight room day and night, so it made sense to me. Then he said to me, ‘Well, don’t you know that steroids combined with weightlifting can make you even bigger?’ He said it to me like I was dumb, so I said, ‘No, I didn’t know that.’”

Wow. I didn’t know that! Pass the bull testosterone, yo!

Oh, and don’t forget Mr. Mitchell’s status on the board of directors of the Red Sox. The following is an excerpt from an e-mail sent by John Clarke, a spokesman for DLA Piper, the law firm conducting the investigation.

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Originally Posted by more

“Senator Mitchell and the Red Sox have agreed that he would not provide advice to the Red Sox owners until this investigation is completed and he would not receive any compensation from the team. That is the current situation,” Clarke wrote in a Nov. 30 e-mail to ESPN.com. “It is the expectation of the Senator and the Red Sox that he will resume his previous role after the completion of the investigation.”

Oh, then never mind! It’s all cool. He didn’t advise or take money while the investigation was ongoing. That he did those things before the investigation, and plans to continue doing so after the investigation, means nothing, right?

At least one GM is speaking out against this:

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Originally Posted by more

“They expected everyone to believe what they say, but they didn’t do anything real to change anybody’s mind. It was just his word,” one general manager said of Mitchell and his investigators. “They think everybody is stupid. They really do.”

So instead of figuring out how to stop this, they’re trying to levy blame on anyone they can. Thanks, Mitchell and Company. I’ll rest easier knowing that you compiled a list of names that people guessed at.

Honestly, I think this report is going to do a lot more to hurt baseball than to help it.

On a related note, I betcha a fiver that A-Rod’s name is somewhere in the Mitchell report. And I betcha that there’s a token Red Sox reference, but nothing of substance. (And I’m not saying A-Rod because he’s a Yankee, but rather because he’s a big name, and including him would seem to fit Mitchell’s M.O.)

George Mitchell former US Senator was appointed to do an independent investigation of the past and present steroid use in Major League Baseball. I'm not sure what the outline of the investigation is and so I don't know what the results will yield and what actions will be taken.

It may make a good documentary someday and I am afraid thats all that may come of it.

I don't think it will do anything because a lot of the drugs have not been banned by baseball for that long. So just because a player is on the list doesn't mean he actually broke the rules at the time he used the drugs.

I don't think it will do anything because a lot of the drugs have not been banned by baseball for that long. So just because a player is on the list doesn't mean he actually broke the rules at the time he used the drugs.

It will change how we view history and how players will be remembered, this will effect the Hall of Fame voters for the Hall of Fame candidates that get named. I don't see any arrests coming of this. Somehow I think MLB and the players union will try to sweep this under the rug and not change any of their current testing polices.

It will change how we view history and how players will be remembered, this will effect the Hall of Fame voters for the Hall of Fame candidates that get named. I don't see any arrests coming of this. Somehow I think MLB and the players union will try to sweep this under the rug and not change any of their current testing polices.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about Hillary, Barack, Romney, Guiliani, and any other idiot who gets into the oval office than I am with MLB and its HOF.

It will change how we view history and how players will be remembered, this will effect the Hall of Fame voters for the Hall of Fame candidates that get named. I don't see any arrests coming of this. Somehow I think MLB and the players union will try to sweep this under the rug and not change any of their current testing polices.

It's almost certain to have an impact on votes for the Hall, but that's probably about it. There will be a lot of fingers pointed, a lot of denials issued, and a lot of speeches made. No enforcement power comes with this report, and anyone who gets named who is still playing is unlikely to have it be anything more than a black mark next to their name. They'll keep pocketing their millions, regardless.

That said, steroid allegations have already torpedoed Mark McGwire's chances of getting into the Hall of Fame, when he would have been pretty much of a lock without them. Bonds will be an even tougher one. The allegations are well substantiated, but the level of his achievement is greater than McGwire. Again, he'd be a lock for the Hall absent the steroid cloud, despite the fact that he's basically a total *******.